In conjunction with field choppers and their attachments, cutting and conveying devices for cutting stalk-like stem crops, such as, for example, corn, with cutting and conveying tools revolving about upright axes are known.
Exemplary embodiments of a revolvingly driven cutting and conveying system of attachments for harvesting stalk-like crops are known, for example, from DE 102 805 and DE 102 30 236. These types of attachments are held on the front side of field choppers, cut off the stalk-like plants close to the ground, convey them into the draw-in shaft of the chopper.
The cutting and conveying device described in DE 196 39 805 and DE 102 30 236 includes cutting and conveying rotors which are mounted next to one another transversely with respect to the direction of travel in a framework, and the conveying rotors of which have indentations which receive the cut-off stalks and retain them over a section of the revolving path and release them again in the rear region so that they can be passed on to the draw-in gap of the chopper.
A cutting and conveying rotor comprises a cutting disk situated at the bottom and, situated above it on a common drive shaft, two conveying disks which are situated at a distance from each other and have indentations situated one above another. To assist the transfer of the cut-off corn stalks to the conveying disks of the conveying drums, stalk lifters with stalk-guiding elements which push the corn stalks into the indentations are mounted upstream of the cutting and conveying rotors.
With increasing working widths of the attachments, the situation arises when cornering that, in the event of relatively constricted turning radii when there is a change in the direction in the working mode, the stalk lifters, guiding fingers and stem dividers are no longer oriented perpendicularly to the turning radius. As a result, when they come into contact with the plants which are still upright, they cause the stalks thereof to bend over by displacing them transversely, with the consequence that the stalk is cut off obliquely in an inclined position and the length of the stubble is thereby increased, which causes losses in the harvested crop. If this is to be avoided, a laborious turning maneuver is required, generally associated with dragging or traveling forward and backward. The present invention has set itself the object of avoiding this. Identical problems occur when working on sloping terrain if slope drift arises, and the carrier vehicle positions itself obliquely with respect to the direction of travel as a consequence of the drift forces. Even in this case, the stalk-guiding elements, which are mounted upstream of the working tools and are situated obliquely with respect to the direction of travel, tend to bend the plant stalks out of the upright position which then results in relatively long stubble lengths.